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There are quality-of-life changes everywhere, responsive and diverse gun mechanics, and playable characters that are the most complex the franchise has ever seen. That said, there are a lot of little details that people missed, so let’s take a look back at some of the coolest stuff you might not be aware you can do while searching for Vaults.
10 You Can Slap Barrels Into Enemies
For all the new players hopping straight into BL3, welcome to a game full of improvements! One such fix is that Elemental Barrels aren’t bolted to the ground anymore. Characters can actually melee and launch them towards enemies.
In fact, for fights against enemies with heavy armor or shields, they’re perfect for when our Vault hunter needed a bit of extra Cryo/Corrosive damage. It’s not a huge change or anything, and they kind of lose their relevance in the late game, but it’s actually more helpful than we thought it would be.
9 You Can Finally Drive Through The Cacti
Now, anyone who played BL2 even relatively recently will remember that the cacti in that game were made of diamond. Imagine speeding along in a Catch-A-Ride buggy, enjoying the breeze, racing towards a mission objective. Now, picture hitting something like a brick wall because the Vault Hunter accidentally bumped into a bit of cactus.
Basically, we’re saying it was annoying to bump into the fauna and environmental items in the old games. Luckily, that’s no longer an issue! Crash into cacti at full speed, careen through barrels, and blast past fences in BL3, there’s not a whole lot that can actually stop the vehicles in the game this time around.
8 You Can Use Water To Your Advantage
We’re sure players noticed this after playing for a couple of hours, but it’s never explicitly stated or needed for any main mission objective (as far as we can remember): the water in Borderlands 3 is actually modified by whichever element it’s shot with.
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Say we fired a fire-element gun at a puddle of water in BL2, what would happen? Absolutely nothing. In BL3, the water gets a nice little coating of flame on top. This works with all elements! Cryo freezes it, Corrosive turns it into toxic sludge, Shock gives it a bit of an electric tinge, and Radiation taints it as well. It actually does a fair bit of extra damage.
7 You Can Rain Oil, Acid, And Electric Down On Enemies
While we’re on the subject of elemental traps in the environment, let’s talk about the ones that were already there! Players might stumble upon these things and think nothing of them, but there are actually quite a few environmental hazards spread throughout the game.
There are steam pipes players can use to scald enemies, Pipe covers that spew oil or acid when shot, pipes blasting air that can be used to launch the players, egg sacs that coat Bandits in a fine corrosive mist when popped, and even oil slicks that are begging to be set aflame!
6 You Can Pet Any Friendly Creature
Shockingly, there are a lot of pets and friendly animals in Borderlands 3, especially considering every single person is playing FL4K it seems (and we don’t blame them). With that in mind, this next little tidbit of info isn’t exactly hard to discover, but players can actually give all these space-faring critters tons of pets at any time.
Eva has a little raccoon thing, there’s a little Grog that shows up on the ship at some point, Claptrap briefly gets a pet, and all of FL4K’s creatures can be petted as well. Sure, it’s not like it affects gameplay or anything, but these virtual creatures obviously enjoy it.
5 You Can Still Tip Moxxi Too Much Money
Fans of the franchise will have probably figured this out as soon as they got a bit of cash, but yes, the Tip Jar is back. We’re of course talking about Mad Moxxi’s “Just The Tip” Jar. When enough money is thrown into it, Moxxi herself will send the player a sweet new gun.
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Honestly, these were almost required for some builds in the post-game of BL2 and we’re glad it’s back and seemingly not as mandatory. From what we’ve found and researched, the amount for a gun is about 30K in $1000 tips, all at the same time. A fun little way to ensure players always have a source of decent guns.
4 You Can Finally Refill Ammo And Sell Guns Quickly
This is by far one of the most sought after changes in the entire Borderlands franchise. Seriously, fans have been asking for this since all the way back in 2012 with the original Borderlands. What are we talking about? Quick ammo refills, of course!
Previously, players had to interact with the Ammo Dump vending machine, then scroll to their weapon of choice, and spam the “buy” key/button until it filled up. Now, all they’ve got to do is hover over said machine and interact to refill all the ammo in their equipped weapons! It really makes a difference for streamlined gameplay.
3 You Can Fast Travel To Cars To Save Time
So, yes, fast travel is finally, actually, and fully available in Borderlands 3. No longer do players have to run back and forth from the mission objective to the fast travel hub. Now, Vault Hunters can travel almost anywhere from the convenience of their expanded map.
We’re not just talking from town to town, by the way: players can hop from planet to planet with ease. What people are slowly realizing in multiplayer is that this is actually perfect for having one player travel to the objective, while the other player just fast travels to their car after they arrive. It’s great for when one person is equipping new items or changing skills while the other is traveling to the objective. Or, both players can explore a zone separately and when one finds the objective, the other can just teleport on over!
2 You Can Do A Lot With The Slide
We talked a bit earlier about how environmental barrels actually play more of a part in combat than we would’ve expected, but sliding is much more important as well! First of all, players can actually slide into barrels too, and when they do, these hazards fly much further than they would when attacked.
Second, Vault Hunters can actually skid right into enemies. It’s only for a bit of damage and knockback, maybe even a knockdown, but still. Finally, sliding becomes key once Artifacts become unlocked because there are a surprising amount of them that modify the slide. Things like shooting sawblades while sliding, shocking enemies as we glide by, and even leaving a trail of flame are available!
1 You Can Strategically Open And Revisit Chests
There’s actually a bit of strategy to the looting in Borderlands 3. Namely, in the timing for players to open/discover certain chests. For example, after finding three Typhon Logs in any one zone, Tannis will mark a Typhon Dead Drop on the player’s map. But, if clever players save activating the last Typhon log until they’re in Mayhem mode in the post-game, the dead drop would get scaled up!
Typhon Caches are singular in the sense they can only be looted once, but Red Chests match the player level as well in Mayhem, so players might want to travel back around and re-plunder these. Basically, Mayhem mode is perfect for re-plundering old loot.
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